15 December 2003 09:04
Russia completes construction of powerful radio telescope network - TV report
[Presenter] The installation of the third, and last, radio telescope forming part of the Quasar system has been
completed in Buryatia. Soon, after signals coming from Leningrad Region, Siberia and the North Caucasus are joined
together, the most powerful tool for monitoring space - a telescope of 4,000 km in diameter - will be put in operation.
Sergey Bondarenko has further details.
[Correspondent] Russian scientists have got a new powerful tool for space research. The Quasar radio astronomy
complex has been assembled. It will operate as one gigantic telescope, parts of which are located thousands of
kilometres from one another.
This is the last of the three radio telescopes that make up the system. It has been built in the village of Bodary in
Buryatia, not far from Lake Baykal. Two identical telescopes already operate in Leningrad Region and in the North
Caucasus. When the Siberian one has all its equipment adjusted, scientists will point all the three dishes at the same
spot in space.
[Andrey Finkelshteyn, captioned as director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Applied Astronomy]
Thus we get a single global telescope with an effective diameter of 4,000 km, with an effective area of 4,000 by 4,000
by 2,000 km.
[Correspondent] From the technical point of view, the implementation of the idea was not easy. Apart from the fact
that the radio telescopes' multitonne dishes must rotate with the utmost precision, they need to be synchronized
with each other. That is why the heart of every observatory is located in an atomic clock in a special bunker that can
protect it both from Siberian frosts and from Baltic dampness.
[Ismail Rakhimov, captioned as director of the Svetloye radio astronomy observatory] The precision of this clock is
such that it can lose or gain a second over millions of years, say two, three or five million years, if at all.
[Correspondent] To astronomical research, the Quasar complex is like spectacles to a short-sighted person. One radio
telescope sees a faraway galaxy like a spot, whereas three telescopes together can distinguish even individual objects
in it. As for its significance on earth, the Quasar provides the most exact system of coordinates. Faraway stars are the
best immovable orienting point and by monitoring how the telescope's position changes in relation to them, one can
even observe movements in the earth's crust. Thus scientists know, for example, that Japan moves 7 cm every
year.
[Andrey Finkelshteyn] The Crimean peninsula is gradually moving towards Russia. There is such an interesting fact, so
you can see a certain geopolitical peculiarity here.
[Correspondent] The Crimea is moving towards Russia at a speed of 1 cm a year, which hardly presents any danger to
Ukraine's sovereignty. As for Russia, with the Quasar system put into operation the country will indeed become
stronger. Exact coordinates are necessary for the military and until recently only the USA had a similar radio astronomy
complex.
[Video shows the Bodary radio telescope; the Svetloye observatory; counter reading 0735-1000]
[Russia TV] |
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